I sympathise with your position as a newly qualifiad atpl myself I am looking at paying for a type somewhere down the line. However I think we are fairly lucky in the uk market compared to the rest of Europe.Almost every single person that i knew finished training about three years ago are now employed.I met two Italian chaps while training in Spain and they have been fully qualified for five years without jobs.
Paying for a type is still a gamble but here it can get your cv noticed.